


The Velveteen Angel

by mishackles



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Universe, Gen, Kid Dean, Kid Fic, Kinda, M/M, Toy Castiel, dean's still a hunter but, this is basically just a velveteen rabbit au with cas as the rabbit, velveteen rabbit
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-04-09
Updated: 2016-04-09
Packaged: 2018-06-01 07:05:32
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,364
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6506173
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mishackles/pseuds/mishackles
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>All Castiel knows is the store.  It is his home. He is nestled in with the other angels, his brothers and sisters.  He is safe and warm, but he is not happy. He should be happy, of course, or so his siblings tell him.  He is beautiful, they say.  But he was not Real.   Castiel had heard of Real, but it seem scary and unfamiliar.  No, he thought, it’s easier not being Real.  That is until a small boy with green eyes and freckles walks into the store.</p><p>A Castiel as the Velveteen Rabbit AU.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Velveteen Angel

All Castiel knows is the store and shelves filled with dolls in pink lace and plastic soldiers frozen in a permeant salute.  This is his home.  He is nestled in with the other angels, his brothers and sisters.  He is safe and warm, but he is not happy.  He should be happy, of course, or so his siblings tell him.  He is beautiful, they say.  With gentle felt skin, shiny blue button eyes, brown yarn hair, and soft velveteen wings; he was the perfect toy.  But he was not Real.

Castiel had heard of Real; all the toys knew the stories.

“But surely it must be a myth,” says Hester.  “A toy becoming Real and having feelings.  It can’t be true.”  Castiel didn’t know if the stories were true, but something inside him hoped they were.  He longed to be Real.  

“I heard that Anna became Real,” Uriel says.  “I heard a little girl loved her so much that she became Real.”  Anna had been on Castiel’s shelf too, a long time ago.  He l can still remember her.  One day a man had come with a small child.  The child had gazed up at the shelf and pointed at Anna and said, “Her! I choose her.”  The man had scooped Anna up and carried her off.  Castiel never saw her again. 

“Anna didn’t become Real,” Hester scoffs.  “Anna broke.  That’s what happens to toys when the children are done with us.  They use us up until we break into pieces.  Then the mothers and fathers throw us in the trash.”   Castiel thinks it all sounds scary.  Maybe Real does not seem worth the risk.  

One day a tall blonde woman walks into the store.  She has a baby propped onto her hip and a child, a few years older, clinging to her other arm.  “Ok Dean,” her voice rings through the store, soft and gentle like the melody in a jewelry box.  Castiel doesn’t think he’s ever heard a sweeter sound.  “You can pick out one toy.”  The older boy—Dean, Castiel presumes—lights up with excitement.  He carefully scans up and down the aisle.  Castiel holds his breath. 

“This one!” Dean calls out after a few moments of contemplating. He holds up one of the army man sets.  He beams up at his mother.  

She laughs lightly. “Dean,” she says patiently, “You already have some army men at home. Why not get something new?” Dean pouts and puts the toy back as Mary begins to look up and down the aisle.  

“But Momma I like the army guys,” Dean whines.  “They’re cool.”

“Maybe,” the woman says dismissively. “But I’m not paying for a toy you already have.” She shifts the baby, who is busy playing with her necklace, in her arms.   “Here,” she says stopping in front of the angels.  “Why not one of these toys,” She reaches and picks up Michael, one of Castiel’s brothers. 

Dean pouts. “Angels? Those are for babies. Lame.” Castiel feels offended on his brother’s part. He tries his best to puff out his chest and look as “cool” as possible, just to prove this child wrong.  

“Babies?” She asks. “Hmm, you must not know that much about angels.” She looks down at her son seriously, but there is a hint of a smile tugging at the corner of her mouth.  

“I do too!” Dean insists, playing right into his mother’s hand.  

“Well,” she continues, “You must know all about how they’re soldiers.  God’s warriors.”  Dean’s eyes go wide and his mouth calls open in a small “o”.  “They’re fierce and absolute.  They’re heaven’s most terrifying weapon.” She fixes Dean with a stern look. “I wouldn’t call them lame.”

“I know that!” Dean says quickly.  “I didn’t mean all angels! I meant that one.  I don’t want that one. I want, uh,” Dean scans the collection quickly. “That one.” Castiel is petrified.  The child is pointing directly at him.

“Ok then,” the woman says, placing Michael back on the shelf and taking down Castiel.  Her hands are soft and warm against Castiel.  He hasn’t been held in a such a long time.  Not since he was put on the shelf for the first time.  He’d forgotten how nice it feels.  

She gently hands him to the young boy who takes him and looks at him.  The boy squints at him like he’s trying to decipher something about Castiel.  Being held by a child isn’t nearly as unpleasant as Castiel had imagined.  The boy had bright green eyes, a dusting of freckles across his cheeks and nose, and when he smiled you could see the spot where he had lost one of his front teeth.  “C-Cast-Cas-y-eel? Castieel?” The boy stammers, attempting to read Castiel’s tag. 

“What’s that baby?” the women asks Dean.  They’re walking away from Castiel’s aisle, towards the checkout counter.  Away from Castiel’s family.  Away from everything he knows.  

“His name,” Dean explains.  “It says so on the tag.  Momma, how do you say that?” he says pointing at the name printed on the tag attached to Castiel’s right arm.  

“Castiel” the women reads clearly.  

“Cas-ta-el” Dean tries, but with his missing tooth, it just doesn’t come out right. He huffs and scrunches his face, frustrated. “Ya know what,” he says. “I’m just gonna call him Cas.”  Something inside Castiel lights up and he feels warm.  Cas. Yeah, he likes that.  Dean smiles down at him. “Heya, Cas.” The boy pulls him close and hugs him to his chest.  That warmth inside Castiel erupts and Castiel’s chest burns hot as something churns inside him. Something new.  

* * *

 

Dean takes him home and Cas likes it there.  Dean’s room is spacious and neat.  There are lots of other toys to talk to.  Castiel’s favorite is the black toy car Dean calls Baby. Baby has been here the longest out of all the other toys.  Her once shiny black frame is dinged from all the bumps, drops, and run-ins over the years.  Her hood doesn’t quite close all the way and she’s missing a wheel.  But Dean loves her anyway.  

“Baby,” Cas asks her one day while they were sitting on the floor of Dean’s room.  Dean is busy baking downstairs with his mother.  He’s been with Dean for a while now, longer than he’d ever been at the store, and something has been bothering him.   “What is Real?”  

“Real?” Baby ask.  “Real is what happens when a child loves you for a long, long time.  Not just to use and leave behind, but really loves you.  Then you are Real.” 

“Does it hurt?” asks Cas.

“Sometimes,” says Baby.  “Sometimes when you love something you hurt it because you’re scared.  Because loving can hurt when it ends, so some might think it's easier to not love at all, but if you are Real you don’t mind being hurt.”

Cas asks Baby, “Is it being broken?”

“No,” says Baby.  “It's not being broken.  It’s being remade into something new. It doesn’t happen quickly, you see.  You become.  Bit by bit.  Usually, by the time you are Real your hair has been loved off, your eyes drop off or your wheels give out.  So some may say you are broken.  But that doesn’t matter at all because once you are Real, you aren’t broken, except to those who don’t understand.”

“Are you Real?”

“What would make you think that I was Real?” she laughs.

“Dean loves you more than I’ve seen anyone love anything.” Cas ignores the pull in his stomach.  He thinks it's called jealousy.  “Surely, you must be Real.”

Baby sighs, “Oh, Castiel. I am not Real nor not- Real.”  Cas is puzzled.  “No I am not what most people would see as Real, but to Dean, I’m as Real as can be.” She pauses for a moment, choosing her words.  “When I’m with him I’m racing down highways and saving the world.  I’m so Real I can feel the asphalt under my wheels.   When I’m with him,” she continues, “I’m the most important object in the whole world. I’m happy.”

Cas knows exactly what she’s talking about.  Every night the beautiful blonde woman comes in and takes Cas off the shelf and tucks him into to bed with Dean.  Dean squeezes Cas close to his chest as his mother kisses his forehead and says, “Sleep tight, angels are watching over you.” But one day something happens.  There's a great heat and suddenly Dean is running out with Cas and Sam in his arms.  They start moving a lot after that. The woman stops coming in to kiss them goodnight.  Dean starts holding Cas tighter.  

Castiel is still happy, though, just like Baby said.  Dean loves him, that’s all he could ask for. When Dean plays with him, he’s fighting monsters, defying heaven, and saving the world.  He’s family.   Sure, sometimes Dean might pull his wing or snag his hair.  Sometimes little Sammy will get ahold of Cas and gnaw on this leg.  But Castiel doesn’t mind. Anything for the Winchesters. 

Time passes, and Castiel begins to change.  His button eyes hang loose, his coat is tattered, one of his wings his ripped.  And still Dean loves him.  And he loves Dean.  He loves Dean with every fiber and every stitch he has.  Dean grows and grows, and Cas continues to love him. 

One day, Castiel hears shouting from outside.  There is always shouting these days. The door bursts open and a man Castiel recognizes comes in.   In the early days, he would come to Dean’s room to play with him and Dean.  But the softness that was once there is now gone. 

“You aren’t a goddamn child anymore,” the man spits at Dean, who enters behind him.  His face is streaked with dried tears.  “You need to grow up.  I can’t trust you to take care of Sam if you keep living in these daydreams of yours.” The man has a big black bag and begins tossing things into it—toys, comic books, anything he can find. He gets to the spot where Cas sits and picks him up.

“Wait!” Dean exclaims.  “Mom got that for me.”  Dean's voice falls just above a whisper.  The man’s hand clenches around Cas, and he squeezes his eyes closed.  

“Enough, Dean,” he says through clenched teeth.  He tosses Cas into the bag. “Its old and broken anyway.”

The bag sits on the curb with the other garbage the following morning.  Cas lays inside, heartbroken.  The sorrow he feels is crippling.  His center aches and every fiber is screaming in pain.  He’ll never see Dean, his wonderful, beautiful Dean, again.  He’ll never be held again.  He thinks back to what Baby said.  Maybe she was wrong. Maybe it is easier to never loved.  But no, Castiel thinks.  He remembers all the times Dean’s laughed and thrown him into the air just to catch him and do it again.  He remembers the times Dean’s held him close as Dean cried, and though it broke his heart, Cas was happy to provide comfort.  No, Castiel thinks, he wouldn’t trade that for the world. 

Something peculiar happens then.  He begins to cry.  He didn’t know he could cry, but sobs continue to shake his body.  “Please,” he calls out to no one in particular. “Please, I need him.  He needs me. He’s my family.”  

Suddenly there is a blinding light and Castiel can’t see.  He calls out for help, but there is no answer.  The light fades and he gasps.  He is no longer in the bag but in a rich lush forest surrounded by thick trees.  He’s been placed in the middle of a clearing. The light continues to recede and condense into one spot.  From the blinding light, a figure begins to materialize.

“Hello Castiel,” the figure, a woman, says.  The light fades more and more until it is only the women and Cas.  She is dressed in blue robes that drape across her in a regal fashion. Her hair is bright red and dotted with flowers.  Her feet are bare and she is hovering about half a foot off the ground. 

“W-who are you?” Cas asks, trying to wrap his head around what is happening.

“I’m an angel,” she speaks clearly. “I have been watching you for a very long time, Castiel.”

“Me?” Castiel asks.  “Why?”

“You have watched over Dean these past years like a true guardian angel.  I wanted to give my thanks,” she says.  “We’d like to reward you.”

“What? Reward me?”  

“He will need someone to continue to watch over him,” she explains.  “Castiel, would you like to be Real?”

Real? Him? Castiel?  He thinks about it, and about the years, he’s spent being Dean’s protector.  Through fire, and turmoil, and strange unknown places.  Dean has kept him through it all.  He’s been roughed up a little here and there, but nonetheless, the love he feels is genuine and pure.  Some may look at him and see an old tattered toy.  But not Dean.  Dean sees an old friend. 

“I already am,” Cas says sure of himself.

The angel smiles, “Yes you are.  Now you need to continue your work.” And with a snap of her fingers, Castiel feels himself begin to change.  He looks down and his hands are covered in skin, not felt.  His coat is real fabric. He reaches up and feels his hair. It is Real. He’s a Real angel now.

Castiel gasps and climbs to his feet.  “Thank you,” he says in awe, looking at the angel.  She nods and smiles gently.  When Castiel looks up again, she is gone.  

So Castiel, the angel, continues to watch over Dean for years to come.  Always out of sight, always hidden, but there nevertheless.  He guides Dean through the years, keeping him safe from danger, helping in small ways.  Soon the little boy Castiel loved has grown into a man.  He fights evil and saves the world, just as Cas knew he would.  Cas watches, pride bubbling inside him.  He is happy here, watching over Dean, protecting him.  And when the time comes that Dean truly needs him, he'll be there. He always has been. 

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> This was inspired by [deansnuggles](http://deansnuggles.tumblr.com/) adorable [Cas photo op](http://deansnuggles.tumblr.com/post/142349356850/cas-op-so-we-had-our-cockles-op-a-few-hours). Thank you so much for this wonderful op. 
> 
> Thanks to Molly who helped edit this.
> 
> I am [toomuchheart](http://toomuchheart.tumblr.com/)on tumblr 
> 
>  
> 
> [rebloggable version here](http://toomuchheart.tumblr.com/post/142534565124/the-velveteen-angel-inspired-by-the-adorable-cas)


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